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Meet Anita Stanley: Woman of Peace 2020!
By maudeaster on 2020-04-10 09:00:54
Women Against War this year chose Anita Stanley to honor as Woman of Peace 2020 at our Annual Dinner. But, alas, the
dinner needed to be postponed. We will honor Anita in person at another time, but this blog seems like a good way here and
now to share with you why we chose this wonderful peacemaker. And it's always lovely to know the path that leads someone
to become a peace advocate. So I interviewed Anita to learn about her journey. [caption id="attachment_ 13895"
align="alignright" width="300"] Anita with Raul Vazquez's poster: Borders
Don't Stop Dreams[/caption] At the top of our minds when we chose Anita was her work as the creative coordinator of
Young Peacemakers Week, an urban day camp project of Albany Friends Meeting. She revived it from a decade-long
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dormancy into a vibrant and enriching experience which has brought together dozens of diverse ond graders, plus their
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teenage ke ounselors, to learn the joys of peacemaking. See Anita’s great op ed
piece in The Times Union last year, “Children Can Lead the Way to Peace”. The goal of Young Peacemakers Week, a week-
long day camp, is to envelop children in an atmosphere of reconciliation and non-violent interaction, in the hope that they
will carry these attitudes and specific techniques into their worlds at home and in school. Despite the current coronavirus
pandemic, planning for this event continues, with hopes it can take place August 17-21, 2020, at the Albany Friends
Meetinghouse, 727 Madison Ave. Children from grades two through twelve are welcome at this urban day camp, to
experience peace-making through a curriculum that involves typical summer camp activities, such as arts and crafts, music,
drama, and non-competitive games. More information at the website of Young Peacemakers Week.
One of our WAW Steering
Committee members, Janet Poole, who loved working on this project with Anita, reported: “Under Anita’s leadership, it is
now a vital, meaningful experience which many of the children say is the best part of their summer. Anita loves to empower
young people whom she has helped for years as a caring, gifted speech therapist. Children are Anita’s inspiration. Her
children and grandchildren are her great joy. She is committed to making a more peaceful world for all children.” All of us
in Women Against War also know firsthand Anita’s wonderful skills at managing a complex project. It’s a mixture of Anita
being very organized, very tactful in solving problems, and very warm and appreciative to everyone involved. A couple of
years ago, Anita coordinated Women Against War’s complex 8-site exhibit of AFSC’s powerful Humanize Not Militarize
posters, combined with theater, speakers and films — at SUNY’s Performing Arts Center, the UU Church, Capital Rep,
Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Albany Pro Musica, Russell Sage College, and C.R.E.A.T.E.’s Art Studio in Saratoga.
Much negotiation with multiple partners, challenging hanging of posters, schlepping them from place to place, staffing
literature tables and more. Anita kept it all moving smoothly and continues to facilitate meetings of Women Against War’s
Pathways to Peace Project, the worker bees for this effort.
When I asked Anita to tell me about her path to become a peacemaker, she explained that she wasn’t raised as an activist.
She grew up in a Republican, Christian Scientist, conservative New England family and went to a conservative college. But
marriage and the possibility of her husband being sent as cannon fodder to Vietnam brought the issue of war-making home.
It resulted in a quick pregnancy and the birth of her first child, fondly called “their little draft exemption”. In the next few
years, Anita describes becoming increasing more liberal. She was influenced by the civil rights movement and the peace
testimony of a Friends Meeting she began attending. Her first dip into activism was for women’s childbirth rights, becoming
co-president of The Connecticut Childbirth Association with her husband. Knowing her love for working with babies, Anita
got a degree from St. Rose in speech therapy in 1990 and began early intervention with at risk children, finding lots of peace
concerns among her colleagues: “The Universe was rocking me.” Anita started her peace activism post-9/11 as a US war on
Iraq loomed. Anita invited some friends in Troy to her house to talk about forming a Troy Neighbors for Peace group. “TI just
gave people a place to sit, and they ended up asking me to chair the group! This opportunity fell into my lap and exposed me
to what was available to do.” Pat Beetle, a Quaker friend, recruited her for the Meeting’s Peace and Service Committee and
invited her to a Grannies for Peace vigil at the Tulip Festival. One of Anita’s
gifts is clearly being willing to say yes to requests to get engaged! Peace Action invited her to join its Steering Committee —
she agreed. Then Women Against War invited her to join its Steering Committee — she agreed. Anita’s activist skills
expanded as she agreed to table at RPI, to hand out signs with names of the war dead at Albany’s largest Iraq protest march,
and to bus to Washington for a national peace march. “When you get on the bus for long hours with people, it’s an
enveloping experience. My devotion to peace-making was sprouting.” During the 2016 primaries, Anita leafleted for Women
Against War at rallies for Clinton, Cruz, and Sanders and enjoyed the varied reactions — although at Trump’s rally she was
spat on and had her leaflets grabbed away, a rather unnerving experience. I asked Anita to tell me why she valued so much
helping young people become peacemakers. I loved her reply: “As a speech language pathologist teaching babies and
preschoolers how to communicate successfully, my heart’s mission is to give them the tools and techniques to treat others
with respect and clarity, as a steppingstone to a peaceful world view. I think it was Wordsworth that wrote, “The child is the
father of the man.” I take this to mean that patterns of thinking and behaving that are learned in childhood, will grow into
the thoughts and actions that we demonstrate as adults. If little children become used to solving problems and viewing the
world from the perspective of peaceful ways and means, they are much more likely to continue with this framework as
adults. On other side of the token, children reared in violence are much more apt to persist with that way of life into
adulthood.” Well-deserved and congratulations, Woman of Peace 2020, Anita!
